


The Line Between Good And Evil

by FujurPreux



Category: Megamind (2010)
Genre: F/M, Getting Together, Identity Porn, Roxanne With Powers AU, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-18
Updated: 2018-09-18
Packaged: 2019-07-14 01:42:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16030379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FujurPreux/pseuds/FujurPreux
Summary: Roxanne got Metro Man's powers instead of Hal and became a superhero who defeated Megamind and freed the city. A year later, Metro City decides to organize a parade to celebrate the first anniversary of that fight, all while Megamind thinks he can get away with faking being Bernard and Space Dad at the same time forever without affecting his relationship(s) with Roxanne. He is wrong.





	The Line Between Good And Evil

**Author's Note:**

> Title from [here](https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/philip_zimbardo_271920?src=t_evil)

Secret identities. Megamind used to think of them as the mark of the uninspired. A shameful charade for those without the courage to be themselves—and then he found himself stuck with one. Or two, depending on which angle one worked from.

It had been an accident, one of those acts of improvisation Megamind had spent his entire life to avoid. With the alternative had been Roxanne finding him all sentimental in Metro Man’s museum, what else could he have done except dehydrate this random Bernard person and take his place? Besides, it all had worked out in his favor in the end. He and Roxanne—and Bernard—had gotten out of there before the explosion, and she had given him a great idea to make life worthwhile again.

To be honest, Megamind had intended to release the real Bernard at first, but it kept slipping his mind. Actions such as ’Freeing the Prisoner’ were written down in the regular To-Do List, which he neglected to check for periods of months at the time. Who had time for that when the To-Do List of Evil included items as exciting as tinkering with Metro Man’s DNA, training the new superhero, and building his new battle suit? Only boring people without aspirations to escape their boring lives, that’s who.

Ultra Woman—for some reason, Roxanne preferred that one to Supermarvelous Femme, the other moniker Space Dad had trademarked—turned out to have a knack for superheroing. She learned how to use those powers faster than a bean germinates on a cotton ball. The Flame of Justice burned within her with unprecedented passion. Only six days into her training, she felt ready to go into battle to take Metro City back from the evil villain Megamind. And what a battle that was! It forced him to use every trick he knew and improvise a handful of others. In the end, he lost, as planned, and was thrown to jail, unable to hide a joyful grin. The city may have been freed from him, but he had also been freed from the city.

For the sake of saving face, Megamind tried to pass his grin as malicious and vowed to return for the sequel. Then, he proceeded to rot in a cell. For about a week. Minion, disguised as a blind lawyer called Matt, the only one who would take his case, busted him out and even made sure to light some celebratory fireworks as they rode to the horizon. What a great minion that Minion was!

Then, things fell into a new normality. Yes, a superhero continued the tradition of kicking his blue butt every other week and also on holidays but, thanks to his ordeal, Megamind had learned two valuable lessons. One, Evil needed Good to shine, and two, being in charge of a unit of modern civilization was overrated. Therefore, he promised himself, he would never even try to make an effort to eliminate another superhero ever again.

It wasn’t just that, either. Ultra Woman’s popularity went through the roof. The general public loved her more than they ever did Metro Man, perhaps because she had come to their rescue in their darkest hours, while Metro Man’s last action made them plummet into said darkest hours. Anything with her logo or with her face on it sold better than ice cream during a heat wave.

“I’m so glad I trademarked it first,” he told Minion every other night when he checked his bank accounts on line.

“You do realize that’s _legally_ earned money, don’t you, sir?” Minion replied, squinting over his boss’ shoulder.

“Money is money, Minion!” Megamind replied, turning off the computer’s screen to hide the figures from his assistant’s disapproving eyes. “It doesn’t matter where it comes from! We can still use it for evil!”

This was also the point where Megamind changed his mind about Bernard. Seizing the opportunity, Space Dad appointed ’Bernard’ as both the president of the Official Ultra Woman Fan Club and the person in charge of the One And Only Official Ultra Woman Store.

“The lad has a good head, deary,“ he had said. “He can keep an eye on the numbers while you take care of more important matters.“

As soon as she agreed, ’Bernard’ was free to get rid of all the unofficial and bootlegged Ultra Woman merchandise—or to partner with some of those manufacturers, whatever gave the most profit. And it gave a lot. The business paid itself, paid ’Bernard’’s salary, and there was still some money left for those charities Roxanne insisted upon. But the most important part was that it gave enough room to launder what Megamind stole from the banks here and there to finance his personal Evil Endeavors. It was an all around win-win.

As for the real Bernard, after being re-hydrated by accident in the washing machine, he had been placed in a comfy room in the bottom floor of Megamind’s new lair underneath the store. He received all kinds of nice food and commodities, and yet he had the nerve to complain about everything. However, as far as Megamind had gathered, that was his base personality, so he stopped giving it importance after writing ’Never free the prisoner’ in the To-Do List of Evil and erasing him from the other one.

Ten months later, with the first anniversary of his first fight against Ultra Woman around the corner, he realized it was time to start planning for something glorious to commemorate the occasion. Anything less meant to disappoint Metro City, and he would rather die first. However, it turned out that the city itself did most of the work for him.

The same day Megamind planned to sit down and begin sketching, the Major summoned ’Bernard’ and offered him to be part of a committee that would organize parade to celebrate The Anniversary. Other members included the Warden, the chief of police, and Roxanne. At the start of the meeting, Megamind thought she would decline because of that secret identity of hers and all, but she accepted. To protect her secret, no doubt. However, he knew her enough by then to realize that she mostly did it because she wanted the intel to better protect everyone when Megamind inevitably showed up. It wouldn’t be fun any other way. She knew they rules of the game, and she enjoyed playing nice. That was one of the many reasons why he liked her.

Why he…

… _liked_ …

…her…

Those four words, uttered in the darkest depths of his mind, opened his eyes and explained why he had been hallucinating stars and flowers around Roxanne for the past couple of months whenever he saw her.

Well, didn’t that add an extra layer of awkward to all their interactions.

Worst yet—or better yet, he stopped keeping track after a while—, ’Bernard’ and Roxanne were assigned to work together in the security subcommittee, the first because he was a theoretical expert on everything Megamind since the Metro Man era, and the latter because of her frequent encounters with the villain, which gave her a particular insight to his _modus operandi_.

Everyone expected Megamind to attack. They worked hard to cover all the possible angles in the greatest secret and in airtight rooms, to prevent him from finding out about it, so he wouldn’t time to plan how to spoil the day. During the first meeting, Megamind bit his tongue before saying that he wouldn’t spoil it. He would just add flavor to the mix. It was his party too after all, wouldn’t it? None of this would be happening without him.

In any case, he enjoyed the planning process less than he would have if he hadn’t realized about his feelings. Every time Roxanne smiled at him, talked to him, looked at him, or just acknowledged his existence, he found himself smiling and wishing nothing would ruin the parade for her. Despite spending the rest of the day planning how to ruin the parade.

No. He would not ruin the parade. He would spice it up. It was different.

_Different!_

Ten days into the committee, he came up with an excellent plan. One of his best ones yet.

He left the store and went to the highest floor of the Ultra Woman museum to look down at the unsuspecting population.

“Ah, the wonderful, grateful, and loyal people of Metro City,” he murmured, because there was too many people to say it out loud. “They’ll never know what hit them!”

* * *

Roxanne didn’t enjoy singing her own praises, but it was the kind of thing that helped to keep both a regular paycheck in her purse and her identity a secret. Even after Metro Man’s demise, the network continued to default to her as the local superhero expert to cover the aftermaths of Ultra Woman and Megamind’s battles despite her mysterious tendency of being unavailable to cover the actual fights. That was as far as she went, though. Perhaps it went unnoticed because, with her frequent kidnappings, she never covered any battles before anyway.

However, for occasions such as this one, the editorial previous to the Ultra Woman Anniversary Parade, Bernard wrote most of the material. He insisted not being credited but, on the one hand, that was against everything Roxanne believed in and, on the other, she loved his shy smile, his blushes, and his aside glances as he told her she shouldn’t have.

That day, she counted on seeing him for a few minutes before she had to leave to don her suit and the mask. Ultra Woman wouldn’t only participate in the parade; she’d also be on the lookout for Megamind. The villain loved few things more than stealing the spotlight. At times, Roxanne thought it the main reason behind everything he did, more so than any money or power he might get his hands on. But no matter the reasons, even if not everything he did was evil, what he had done to Metro Man could not be forgiven nor forgotten. And it wouldn’t. Not while she kept on breathing—and while she kept those powers.

Roxanne found herself thinking often about how she had gotten them. When Roxanne and Bernard infiltrated in Megamind’s old lair, she hadn’t expected to interrupt him on the process of giving himself those powers with that weird gun. Roxanne didn’t feel like she deserved them, but it was better than the alternative. Maybe the being that called himself Space Dad was right when he said that it hadn’t been mere coincidence that led her there at that exact moment. She shuddered to think what would have been of Metro City—of the world!—had Megamind succeeded. His genius made him terrifying already. Add Metro Man’s abilities and there would be no way to stop that monster.

Unworthy as she felt, she nevertheless had to be grateful for the chance of protecting Metro Man’s legacy, of being able to look after Metro City and its inhabitants, despite the inconveniences.

The evil supergun altered Roxanne’s perception of the world. At first, everything came at the same time, a nightmare storm of overwhelming sensory input. Practice and the guidance of Space Dad had helped, and she had learned to filter and categorize those sounds to respond to actual emergencies while ignoring the rest as background noise. Now, she could see in detail how a hummingbird took a flower’s nectar from one mile away and hear the sound each of its feathers made every time its wings moved, but only if she focused.

As for the super strength, while she did have to work on how to pick up eggs without breaking them, it wasn’t that complicated. Flying was also easy. It was the best part, actually. Great for relaxing, going up high, away from everything and everyone whenever she needed some well-deserved me-time.

Back to the present. It was time to ditch Murray, the new cameraman. The previous one, Hall, had left the job and moved to another town after Roxanne rejected him. She was glad to see him having a chance to move on. As for her, it wasn’t only that he wasn’t his type at all. There was also the matter of her heart being taken.

She picked up her phone and called Bernard.

“Yes?” he answered.

“Where are you? The parade is about to start.”

“I—uh, I remembered that I forgot to—ah, feed my pet fish just as I was coming out of the house. I’m running a little late. But I’ll be there.”

“I didn’t know you had a pet fish.”

“Ah! Only since yesterday. I’m an impulsive buyer, who knew? Anyway, you can meet him— _it_ later. See you at the parade!”

“Alright. See you.”

They hung up at the same time, a habit they had developed around the tenth time Bernard’s housekeeper had hung up for him, tired of them taking so long to do it themselves. Roxanne couldn’t say she was proud of behaving like a school girl, but she couldn’t help it. Besides, Bernard encouraged her by doing the same.

The phone went back into her pocket and Roxanne sighed. She’d never be able to tell him how she felt. She wanted to do it, but she couldn’t. It would put him in danger, just like she had been in constant danger back in the Metro Man days, when people thought he and Roxanne had been a couple. What would happen if this once it were for real? Nothing good, that was for sure. Thus, no confessions for her, dramatic or otherwise.

The inconveniences of being a superhero, indeed.

* * *

“What do you mean pet fish?” Minion said, offended all the way to the gills. He was on his way to carry the last box to the invisible car.

There was barely enough space for the two of them now, which was why they had decided to leave the laptop with the Brainbots’ personality modules behind. They all had been programmed beforehand, making it the least indispensable piece of equipment. They could afford to leave it there, where nothing would happen to it.

_We so need an invisible pickup truck_ , Megamind’s mind squeezed into his consciousness between him noticing it and before he answered Minion’s question.

“I panicked!” he said. “And you were in my line of sight and—why am I explaining myself to you? You’re the minion here, Minion. Are we ready?” Megamind asked, changing the subject like a champion.

Minion pouted but stopped insisting. “We are, sir. According to the traffic report, the streets are empty. ETA to the secondary lair in ten minutes.”

Megamind rubbed his hands on his way to the car. “Perfect! Let’s give them a show they’ll never forget!”

“All out of charge, too!” Minion started the car. “So, here we go.”

“Yes. Here we go,” Megamind repeated, taking a deep breath.

“Break a leg, sir.”

“Break a leg, Minion.” He cackled. “Break a leg.”

* * *

“Bernard, where are you?” Roxanne muttered, watching the clock on the building across the street.

The parade would start in five minutes. By then, Ultra Woman had to show up in the air, to greet and thank everyone for being so thoughtful. No one had bothered to send her an official invitation, but the committee had agreed it wouldn’t be necessary. Just like no one had sent Metro Man one for any of the ceremonies held in his honor.

“They have ways to know about these things,” had been the general consensus.

“Besides, it’s not like we can keep a parade in secret forever,” the Mayor had said. “At some point, we’ll have to put all the floats out in the open.”

“We will announce the schedule at the last possible minute. Until then, everything will proceed according to a need-to-know-basis,” the Warden continued as he handed out folders. “These are the schedules, the addresses of the warehouses where we’ll build the floats, and the security agency we hired. Not a single paper must leave this room. Therefore, when you’re done with the folders, you’ll put them back in the safe. Is that clear?”

“Like ZBLAN produced in zero-gravity,” Bernard replied, bouncing on his chair. Adorably bouncing on his chair.

Between then and now, Megamind was subject to heavy monitoring, but he only appeared twice in public to perform petty thefts, and there was no sign of him wanting to infiltrate City Hall.

However, the last time Ultra Woman chased after him, he showed the top half of his body from the sunroof of the invisible car where he was making his escape, and said, “The anniversary of our first battle is coming, Ultra Woman! We should get together and organize a party!”

“Or at least get some pizza!” yelled Minion.

“I like that idea. Specially if we do it—in jail!” she replied, punctuating the last two words with a speed boost.

Seeing her approach, Megamind yelped and his eyes grew wide as he dived inside and closed the sunroof.

All invisible now, the car lost itself in the city’s traffic, the inherent noise making it difficult to track it by sound. By the time Ultra Woman was able to focus, the car had vanished. Frustrating, yes, but the exchange had made it clear that Megamind didn’t know about the parade. Things were according to plan on that front, at least, and they continued to be until the day of the parade.

The five minutes were up. Roxanne should have been wearing her suit, but Bernard hadn’t appeared yet. He wasn’t answering his phone either.

Perhaps he had been caught in traffic. He never answered his phone when he drove.

_(Please, be caught in traffic.)_

The music began. Roxanne sighed and resigned herself to not seeing him as herself and hurried to suit up, making good use of her super speed. She was able to move so fast that at times she thought she could live an entire life in what for everyone else would be the fraction of a second.

Soon, she wore her tights and her mask. This was the third version of her suit, provided by Space Dad just like the others. All of them retained the same color scheme: white, red, and yellow, but each with a unique combination. The latest was the most comfortable and—to be honest—the most flattering. The cape fell to the middle of her thighs and it fluttered elegantly behind her, never getting in her way whenever she turned or walked or flew, unlike the first one. Roxanne didn’t know how Space Dad had done it, but it was how she had first envisioned it, and she was happy he had incorporated her suggestions.

“If you have any other idea, just let me know,” Space Dad had said. “We’ll make it happen.”

Despite their mystery and their… everything, they were great support, this Space Dad and _Space Step-Mom_ , always ready to help _._ Regarding the latter, though, Roxanne remained intrigued and amused to a point. She hadn’t mentioned to either of them how that was so obviously Minion. She planned to roll with it until they gave her an opening to ask the right questions. After all, the information and training they continued to give her improved her chances of defeating or even catching Megamind; she could afford to give them the benefit of the doubt. Besides, if that was why the villain always failed, because Minion had been good all along and his real mission was to sabotage Megamind’s plans, that would explain a lot.

Roxanne returned to move at normal speed and took off. The parade would begin near the Mayor’s box, so that’s where she should go. There would be a speech, that Bernard also wrote in what he had called one night full of inspiration, and then they would give Ultra Woman the keys to the city. After that, the parade would start for real, making it the moment she expected Megamind to strike.

* * *

Megamind had Minion and the Brainbots give the finishing touches as he watched the opening ceremony from a secret spot. He’d never dare to interrupt the speech that had taken him almost a month to write, but once the Major finished with it, the game would be on.

Ultra Woman was there, next to the Mayor, her red mask covering the blush he knew adorned her face. He could picture it in his mind’s eye, though, and it was lovely.

He liked how she lacked Metro Man’s arrogance when receiving public praise. Roxanne had told Space Dad and Space Step-Mom about how self-conscious she felt whenever she had to report on herself, and Space Dad did his best to comfort her and tell her that she deserved it. For some reason, she never bought it. Even now, her body language said that she was humbled by the experience for real, not like the aforementioned late superhero, whose head had been as full of air as it it had been covered with that shiny and luxurious hair of his.

How he wanted to hug her. But that’d have to wait until the grand finale, and it would be worth it.

“We’re all set,” Minion said.

His boss didn’t even turn to look at him. He just waved his hand in his assistant’s general direction. “Wait. This is the best part,” he said. And it was; he made sure of saving the best for last.

Megamind mouthed the last two paragraphs of the speech, where he had written that even the evil blue villain had to be in awe of the new magnificent and amazing superhero in town. Which was true, but since no one should know, that was as close as a confession that he was going to get. But that was fine. The villain never got the girl, whether the girl was also the hero herself. Following that line of thought, should Roxanne get herself? Questions that kept him awake at night. However, if that were the case, it would be fine with him too; Roxanne was the only person in the universe who deserved Roxanne.

Anyway, the speech was now over and the Mayor picked up the key to the city so he could give it to Ultra Woman.

His cue! Megamind straightened his back and raised his right hand, index finger pointing up at the sky. “All right, Minion! It’s show time!”

* * *

Roxanne thought the burn on her cheeks would never go away. She hadn’t wanted to hear the speech before, when Bernard tried to read it to her when he finished it, arguing that it would be better to get to it unspoiled. He had conceded the point and allowed her to wait. He should have been the one reading it, too, but the Mayor had insisted and Bernard had obliged. Besides, those were words meant for Ultra Woman, not for Roxanne, so maybe it was all for the better.

She glanced to the side to Bernard’s chair. It remained empty. She had also scanned the public, in case he was down there, waiting and not wanting to disrupt the ceremony after it had already begun. But she had found nothing.

When the speech finished, Ultra Woman stepped forward to receive the keys to the city, a big and golden thing that she would later give to Space Dad for safekeeping. It wouldn’t do to keep it in her apartment.

The moment her hands touched it, the chords of hardcore rock music boomed all around them at the same time a light fog spread above their heads. The opening signature move of the super villain they were all waiting for.

“Security! Now!” the Warden called. “As we practiced!”

Roxanne braced herself for what was coming. Together, the hired extra private security, the police, and Ultra Woman had the greatest fire power that the city had ever seen. The first wave of attack should begin about… now.

But…

…nothing.

Ten seconds later, the only sound to join the electric guitar was Megamind’s cackle coming from an unseen but high quality set of speakers.

“What? Were you expecting anything special?” he asked, his figure emerging from between the fog, sporting a smug smile. He stood on some sort of platform several feet high, arms akimbo and his cape flowing behind him.

The Warden hurried to grab the microphone. “Megamind! What did you do?”

Megamind laughed some more before answering in the most condescending tone possible. “Wouldn’t you like to know? Yet! It’s not a matter of what _I_ did, but of what _you_ are going to do!”

“You evil, evil fiend!” the Warden continued.

Megamind batted his eyelashes. “Aw, you flatter me. However, I do deserve it. This is my party as much as Ultra Woman’s, is it not? Or maybe even more! None of this would have been possible without me, after all! Tell them! Tell them, Ultra Woman!” His laughter became louder and louder as he reached up for the sky. “They deserve to know who created you!”

The lightning and thunder that followed those words were the last straw.

“That’s it!” Ultra Woman exclaimed, launching herself forward and upwards, fist at the ready to hit Megamind’s smug face.

But instead she went right through him.

There was no platform either, only the fog.

“Say, do you like my hologram?” Megamind asked from the speakers around them. “I’ve been working on it for a year, perfecting it so it can fool even your super vision!”

“No one here is in the mood for your antics today, Megamind!” Roxanne replied.

“That’s too bad, because there’s no other dish on today’s Menu of Evil!” Megamind resumed laughing, spreading out his arms, and his figure receded against the fog, fading into it.

It pained Roxanne to even admit it to herself, but the whole display had been really cool. That didn’t make it less evil and reprehensible, though.

“Wait!” she called. “What did you do to the security personnel?”

“I told you! You’ll find out in due time!” He cracked his knuckles. “But that’s enough fooling around. Let’s get _down to business_!”

A real platform raised from between the fog, held by four pillars of Brainbots, one on each corner. However, the worst was in the middle: a thin, metallic column where someone was tied up and gagged.

Roxanne’s blood froze when she recognized Megamind’s hostage of the day: it was Bernard.

* * *

Pleased with himself, Megamind stared at the commotion around and below him and smiled behind the gag. Now that the audience had been appropriately warmed up, they were ready for the best part. Helped by the holowatch, Minion-as-Megamind would fight Ultra Woman in a most spectacular fashion until the time came for an honorable retreat. Then, with ‘Bernard’ now saved, a big bear-like hug would ensue and they would have a happy ending. Oh, and also the authorities could start with the parade.

What a great plan! Megamind and Minion had spent months rehearsing every possible outcome, every possible exit, and every possible move from Roxanne.

Ultra Woman launched herself forward, to ‘Bernard’, as all the probabilistic models had said would be her opening move. She was blocked by a wall of Brainbots that then surrounded her and span faster and faster while taking her away from the platform. Her disorientation lasted for all of one second, but it was enough for put a respectable distance between her and ‘Bernard’ before she started punching the Brainbots away.

Megamind was glad he thought of installing cameras up there. The public on the ground were recording this, no doubt, but there was no ways for their phones to capture the scene in good quality. The fans deserved to get the full and glorious HD experience—and he planned on making a fortune selling it at an reasonable-yet-profitable price.

“Ohoho! I see your left fist has become more accurate than before for about 7.6%,” Minion-as-Megamind said. Positioned between the superhero and ‘Bernard,’ he carried on with the script.

“Let him go!” she exclaimed, all gracefulness and fury, as she floated in front of ‘Megamind.’

“Just like that? It’s no fun at all!” ‘Megamind’ smirked. “No, Ultra Woman. You’ll have to earn it!” He laughed and raised his hands to call forward the next act.

And then, three unexpected events heralding impending doom happened, two of them at the same time.

First, Ultra Woman, a level-headed and rational person who knew the rules of the game and who had always played nice, crashed a Brainbot with her bare hands using an unwarranted amount of violence without flinching. Second, the Brainbots programmed for that next act never appeared.

‘Megamind’ tried spreading his arms again, further this time, with the same result. “I said!” he repeated, more loudly now. “ _You’ll have to earn it!_ ”

Ultra Woman floated forward, forcing ‘Megamind’ take a few steps backward. The real Megamind could feel the heat of her anger all the way to where he was tied up. It was scary—and at the same time, it made him feel weird things in his stomach. Enough to stop thinking for a second about what could be delaying the grand finale.

That’s when the third event heralding impending doom happened.

The Brainbots, all of them, changed from their normal blue light to a loud orange, and began to emit a high-pitched shrill designed to incapacitate Metro Man and that Megamind thought he had deleted from their programing a long time ago, around the same time the solar death ray proved to be a success.

Curse his tendency to be so easily distracted.

Ultra Woman fell down on her knees, pressing her hands on her ears and grunting while ‘Megamind’ turned to ‘Bernard’ for guidance.

_Dammit. Dammit. Dammit._ He was supposed to be the one being rescued that day, for everything’s sake. But he couldn’t let things go on like this, or Roxanne’s eardrums would explode.

‘Bernard’ shook his head, making the gag slide down to his neck. “Make them stop!” he yelled.

‘Megamind’ pressed several of the buttons on his wristband. “It’s not working!” he called back.

“Try again!”

‘Megamind’ did, but the screeching continued.

“I have to do everything myself, don’t I?” ‘Bernard’ muttered and got ready to release himself from the handcuffs.

However, before he could do it, Ultra Woman, despite her shivering, and with gritted teeth, managed to painstakingly stand up, and then she dashed forward once more to once more destroy as many Brainbots as she could.

The strange feeling in Megamind’s stomach returned, makig him discover new reasons to be glad he had thought of the cameras. Furthermore, he discovered himself thinking that perhaps he didn’t want to sell that recording anymore.

* * *

For a moment, Megamind thought Roxanne had seen through his disguise, and that everything was ruined. But she hadn’t. She still wanted to save him, to pick him up in her strong arms, and Megamind felt like flying even before they took off. He also felt he could kiss her. He was about to, for a second, but he stopped himself. What if the hologram, new and improved as it was, didn’t support such an intimate move? Besides, he wasn’t sure he’d want his very first kiss being this public.

As he thought about it and was about to be rescued so they could end the show in the high note everyone wanted, the light in the Brainbots changed again. This time, though, it began a transformation into purple that kept growing darker and darker. They wouldn’t stop until they became all black.

“Oh, no,” Megamind murmured, his hold Roxanne getting tighter.

She reciprocated him. “They’ve never done that before,” she said.

“That’s the Kill Mode. They’re only supposed to do that if the entire city is to be destroyed.” Why did he even program them with a Kill Mode? Yes, he was a villain and it seemed like an obvious must, but he wasn’t so sure anymore. He didn’t want Metro City destroyed. He had already ruled it and found it boring, but not having it at all would be even worse. “Put me down!” Megamind said, hating his life, his luck, and everything.

But Ultra Woman didn’t. “What?”

“Put me down!” he repeated. “The window to stop them will close once they all turn black! There’s a code, but it can only be sent from the wristband and it’s long and complex!” _And Minion doesn’t know it because it never came up during trivia night_ and like hell he was going to scream it across the platform for everyone to hear. It was also the password for his email account.

She frowned. “How do you know that?”

Megamind winced. Was this the price he’d have to pay, now that he didn’t want to see the city in ruins? He decided that no, it wasn’t. He would come up with a perfectly good and convincing explanation, but later. He had to solve this first.

“I—just do. You’ll have to trust me. Please, Roxanne. Let me go.”

She did put him down then, and Bernard began to run toward Minion to reclaim his wristband. He was half way there when he realized he had called her by her real name.

He…

…he’d better come up with a perfectly good explanation for that too.

But in due time. In due time.

* * *

Roxanne felt her head about to explode. It hurt like nothing had ever hurt before or after she got those powers. But she wouldn’t let something as simple as that to bring her down. She had to save Bernard.

She had been where he was now. She knew Megamind’s traps had more bark than bite into them. After all, he needed his hostage alive and in one piece, but the traps could freak out anyone who faced them for the first time. Bernard didn’t deserve that. Bernard was nice and adorable and carefree… To think that Megamind had dared to mess with him filled her with rage, and in her rage she found the strength to get up and punch those Brainbots into scraps.

She hit them at random, going after the one she got nearest, and then the next and the next. At some point—after who knew how much time—, the noise stopped. An annoying buzz lingered in her ears, however. Annoying, but also an improvement, and there didn’t seem to be any kind of permanent damage.

Roxanne rubbed her temples and turned his attention to Megamind.

The villain was facing Bernard. “I think she destroyed the Brainbot sending the signal to the others!” he yelled, loud enough for his words to go through the buzzing. He seemed confused, but then again, he had a tendency to be whenever his plans didn’t go as he expected, which meant this was the case now.

Despite everything, she was glad. She’d make sure to keep complicating things for him.

She then focused on Bernard. He was sighing out of relief. The handkerchief on his mouth had fallen off, making it possible for her to see his face. He smiled, proud of her. No. Proud of Ultra Woman. Nevertheless, Roxanne felt touched all the way to the core. It would be a bad idea to make it obvious, with Bernard already being targeted, so she composed herself and went to him.

“Are you okay?” she asked as she broke the handcuffs that kept him tied to the column.

“I am now,” he replied, still smiling.

She allowed herself to smile back at him for a moment before growing serious again. “Let’s get you out of here before he regroups.”

“There are still plenty of Brainbots,” he replied. “Even if they did go back to their normal blue color after you hit that last one, and I’m sure that diabolical mastermind has something else prepared. Plans like nothing we had seen before, although I’m not sure what. He didn’t care to share.”

“When does he, really,” she replied. “Let everything to me. I’ll take care of him, for good this once.”

“Are you sure? He’s proved to be quite resilient.”

“This time he’s gone too far. He—” _targeted you._ She stopped herself before saying that much. Her faltering was noticeable, but there was no fixing that. She could, however, fix what her next words would be. “He tried to stomp on an important event for the city! So many people worked so hard to make this possible! I cannot allow him to continue like this!”

Bernard glared at Megamind’s direction now. That was brave of him, given what he had just gone through.

Megamind answered to that glare with a puzzled look and a shrug. He hadn’t put himself together yet, and then she noticed: he was also alone.

“Where’s Minion?” she asked.

“What?” Bernard replied. His reaction, going pale as his eyes widened and his jaw fell, made it clear that he understood.

“Yes,” she said. After a brief moment of hesitation, she picked Bernard up bride style. The surprise made him yelp, but she pretended she didn’t notice. “I better take you down before he attacks us by surprise.”

It was right then, though, that all hell broke lose.

* * *

_How did he know?_

Or better yet: for how long had he known? There had been no surprise in his voice nor in his face, just concern for what could happen if the Brainbots weren’t stopped.

He raced toward Megamind, not caring what would happen if the villain regained a smidgeon of composure by the time Bernard reached him. She couldn’t let that happen. Besides, they were running out of time.

Fine. If Bernard needed Megamind’s wristband, he would get it.

Flying forward in full speed, it took her less than a second to grab Megamind’s hand and take away the wristband. However, it wasn’t the only thing she took away from him.

The instant Ultra Woman took a step backwards, Megamind’s figure shimmered and transformed into Minion.

“Uh…” the latter mumbled.

“What?” Ultra Woman asked. “Where’s Megamind?”

“No time for that!” Bernard exclaimed. He snatched the wristband and pressed a series of buttons while Minion watched upward at the still rapidly changing Brainbots.

Ultra Woman stared at the item that remained in her hand. It was a watch. Or at least it looked like one.

Then, she realized.

It was the same kind of watch that Bernard always wore.

Roxanne closed her fist, not hard enough to crush the device, but close.

When she turned around, Bernard… _‘Bernard’_ was sighing in relief, clutching the wristband against his chest. It seemed like the Brainbot crisis had been averted.

A shame it wasn’t the only one.

* * *

Megamind pressed the last button right on time and sighed in relieved when the Brainbots changed back to their normal blue. He still needed to figure out what had happened and how, but right now, the situation was under control.

And then he saw Roxanne’s face.

If he had thought she had looked terrifying before, when he was tied up to the column, that paled in comparison to the expression on her face, the stiffness of her back, and the way her fingers curled up into something he could only describe as claws.

The feeling in his stomach came back with a vengeance. It even took him a moment to remember whether he was still wearing the Bernard persona. But he was, which means he would be fine. Everything would be fine.

He smiled, best he could, and waved his fingers. “We did it!” he offered more weakly that the occasion warranted.

Her frown intensified and he felt the need to hide behind whatever was closest. The wristband, in this case. In hindsight, not even trying would’ve been better, a reflection that came to him far too late.

‘Bernard’ kept on sporting a pathetic smile. “Why—” That one word came out as a whimper, so he stopped and cleared his throat before carrying on, trying to sound more confident. “Why are you looking at me like that? I didn’t do any of this. It was Megamind!”

Without warning, she ripped off the holowatch from his wrist, making him go back to his blue, alien, and handsome original appearance.

“You were saying?” she asked, although it came out more like a growl.

Megamind’s smile became more and more awkward. He felt the hands of Minion’s robotic gorilla body on his shoulders as his assistant cowered behind him, and he chastised himself for not thinking of hiding behind Minion first.

“Listen, I can explain—”

“You’d better!” She shook her fist in front of his face. “For how long has this been going on? Is there even a real Bernard? Because you’ve been wearing this from the start!” she exclaimed, all but rubbing the holowatch on Megamind’s face.

“Aw, you noticed!” Megamind replied, realizing too late it wasn’t the right time to act flattered. He scurried behind Minion and looked back at Roxanne from behind the big, furry arm. It didn’t make him feel any safer. “Ah…” he began, but couldn’t go any further.

Minion could, though. “Bernard _does_ exist,” he said in an eeriely and dissonantly cheery tone of voice. “He’s been in our basement for over a year, so all this time you _have_ been hanging out with him.” He pointed at Megamind then, the fishy traitor.

“ _You!_ ” Roxanne tapped Minion’s fishbowl with a finger. “I’m not happy with you either, _Space Step-Mom._ Can you tell me where Space Dad is? Although I think I have a good idea!” She glared at Megamind as she said that, making clear that she had figured out that too.

Minion gasped, covering his mouth with his fins while Megamind attempted to go for a save. “What—what do you mean? Who are you talking about?” But the stuttering did nothing but harm his argument.

“You know what I’m talking about!” Roxanne turned around and held her fists against her chest. “Has all of this been a lie?”

Her despair gave Megamind the courage to come out from behind Minion to try to comfort her.

“No, no, no! It wasn’t! At least not the important parts.”

“What would those be?”

“Well, that you are the bravest superhero I’ve ever met. You’re smart, resourceful, witty, noble, good with banter…”

“That was implied in witty, sir,” Minion said.

“What I’m trying to say,” Megamind continued, trying to pretend Minion hadn’t said anything, “is that I’m glad it’s you who’s been fighting me this past year.”

“While you mocked me.”

Okay. That stung. “I never mocked you!”

“Of course you did! You pretended to be my friend and my mentor, and not even the two as the same person! To think all this time I believed Minion was double-timing _you_ when the both of you were making a fool of _me_! I’d be surprised if you hadn’t trained me wrong!”

“Surprise!” Minion exclaimed, waving his fins and beaming. “We didn’t!”

“Not now,” Megamind whispered, pushing the gorilla suit to the back again. “But it’s true, Roxanne. We trained you for real.” He looked down and began to play with his fingers. “I wanted you to defeat me. And, well, not giving my best every time is not—”

“Fun?” She spat the word as if it was a bite of that rutabaga pie she hated.

Megamind winced but kept talking, his eyes fixed on the platform’s floor. “I— ah, fun too, but I meant fair.” He began kicking some pieces of rubble around. “I didn’t want to rule Metrocity anymore, so I began looking for a way out that would let me keep some dignity.” He only dared to look at her in the eye when he finished talking, shyly and slowly raising his eyes, scared of what he might find.

What he saw shook him to the core.

She was tearing up.

“You— you _villain!_ You fraud!” She began to elevate. “You disgusting person!”

“But—”

“Leave me alone!” she exclaimed, and then she flew away.

“Ultra Woman! What about the parade?” he asked.

She didn’t answer, hurting him more with her silence than with any insult she could’ve hurled at him.

Megamind watched her go, feeling a deep emptiness in his… in his everything, to be honest. “There she goes. To who knows where and for who knows how long,” he murmured.

Minion leaned toward him and lowered his voice. “Does she know there’s a tracker in that suit?”

“I never told her, so no, she doesn’t. But we need to clean up here first.”

Of course, by ‘we’ Megamind meant Minion and the Brainbots because all he wanted right now was to sit in a dark corner to brood.

* * *

For the longest while, Roxanne looked for a mountaintop covered in dark storm clouds that would match her mood. Unable to find it, since the weather insisted on remaining clear even after sunset, she had to settle for just the mountain. Far from Metro City, but from where she still could watch it, she sat down on the highest rock and hugged her legs.

Megamind wasn’t the only fraud here. She was one too, believing she was saving everyone by fighting him when no one had even been in actual danger, not since Megamind got bored of being in charge.

That explained everything, starting with why _‘Bernard’_ had been so happy that time in the museum. She gave him the idea that would free him from the problem that he himself had caused. Did he choose her at that moment as well? Or was it an accident, like had claimed later on? Probably the former. He wanted to stop ruling, not to die. Some people had wished that for him since the beginning. Random callers asked Metro Man why he didn’t do it in almost all of the live interviews he gave Roxanne back in the day. She remembered Metro Man gasping in horror whenever the idea came up.

“It’s not who I am,” he replied. “Nor who I want to be. Next question, please.” Then, he pretended that one question had never happened.

Well, it wasn’t who Roxanne was, either. Not even now, that he had broke her heart. But whose fault was it? At least, she had never told him how she felt. She’d hold to that saving grace. It offered some comfort, however small, in the middle of this whole mess.

Roxane wiped her face. Enough commiseration. She had to figure out what to do from then on. She wouldn’t give back those powers, that was for sure, and she wouldn’t let Megamind take them away. They were hers now, for better or worse, and this time she would use them for real.

First, she would rescue the real Bernard from Megamind’s basement. No matter how much it’d hurt to see his face without the personality Megamind had given him—without him recognizing her—, he didn’t deserve to be there any longer. Second, she would throw Megamind, the… _the creature_ who had faked to be her friend and her mentor to jail for good. Forever. She would melt the bars of his cage if he had to in order to stop him from escaping again. In order to never see him again.

Then… then, she would keep on protecting Metro City. Chances were that there would never be another threat as Megamind. But that didn’t matter. She loved her home, and she would dedicate her entire life to it. She would have done it regardless, powers or not.

Roxanne took a deep breath and stood up. There was no point in procrastinating any longer. There was work to be done. Megamind could not be unaware of what was coming, so he might as well be on his way to hide in the deepest of the Earth. The coward would never come to face her, not after all of this, so she’d better start looking for him right now.

She would’ve done it if it hadn’t been for the panting that came from behind her, along with the sound of stones rattling against each other as they were shifted around.

“Ah!” Megamind gasped. He was covered in dirt and his cape had become rags that dragged behind him. “Finally! Couldn’t you have gone to brood to a more accessible place?”

“What are you doing here?” Roxanne, more surprised than angry despite herself.

“Looking for you,” he replied as he sat on a rock, still panting. “Just… give me a moment. To regain my breath. You athletic types don’t know how it is for us intellectuals to do these things.”

Roxanne repressed the urge the urge to snicker because she knew it would transform into a chocking sound. That had been such a Bernard thing to say. Or, now that she knew the truth, perhaps it was a very Megamind thing to say?

Regardless, the familiarity made her feel miserable.

“Are you here to gloat?” she asked.

“I haven’t done anything gloat-worthy,” he said. Then, he took a deep breath and looked at her with big, sad eyes. “I wanted to a— aaaaa—” The vowel stretched and repeated several times more without becoming a full word, sounding as pathetic as Megamind looked.

Roxanne, despite having a good idea of what he tried to say, just stared at him, arms folded. She wouldn’t help him. He didn’t deserve it.

“Aaaa-pol-o-gize,” he managed after almost a minute, looking relieved once it came out. The second time, it was easier. “I wanted to apologize. For what I did to you.”

“And what did you do?”

He looked down, kicking a few stones and playing with the tatters of his cape. “I tricked you into believing I was three different people.” He raised his eyes again, sadder and bigger than before. “But I never meant to hurt you.”

Those words went straight to her core. For some reason she couldn’t begin to explain, she wanted to believe them. However…

“You are aware that you’re a villain, right?”

He spread his arms and looked up to the heavens. “Yes, I know! I know! But I never wanted to hurt _you_. Because— Because, well…” He cleared his throat and avoided to look at her face again, although he did glance in her direction every other word. “Do you remember the speech I wrote for the Mayor? I meant every word.”

Roxanne covered her mouth with both her hands to repress a gasp, and closed his eyes to avoid tears.

“For a genius, you’re the biggest fool I know,” she said after a moment.

“I deserve that.”

“You deserve worse.”

He pouted, but didn’t argue. Instead, he asked, “So, what’s going to happen now?”

“I don’t know. Will you continue to do evil?”

“I don’t know how to do much else.”

She sighed, wondering if she should say this, but in the end she couldn’t help herself. “You know how to train superheroes.”

He squinted. “Do you want me to give superpowers to random citizens?”

“No, no, no!” she replied, waving her hands. “What I mean is that there should be more people out there with some kind of ability. We could find them, and you could teach them.”

Megamind’s face lit up. “I could found my own _shool!_ ” he murmured. “And—did you say ‘we’?”

She nodded. “But you have to promise to renounce evil forever.”

He hesitated. Not for long, though. For nearly a minute, than a minute, he pouted and then nodded with determination. “Fine,” he said. “No more evil. For you!”

Roxanne liked that more than if he had agreed without thinking. It meant he was sincere. Of course, she was judging him through the Bernard lens. But that was the point, wasn’t it? If what he had showed her when he wore that face had been the true him, then maybe she could give him a chance.

She held out her hand. “You’re on probation as of now. Six months.”

He took it. “This time, I’ll pass it with flying colors.”

“I’ll hold you to your word,” she replied, daring to smile a little and getting another shy smile back.

“Ah… Any pointers on where I should start this new life of good?”

“Releasing the real Bernard,” Roxanne offered.

“Oh. That. It might be a problem.”

She frowned. “Why?”

“He doesn’t want to leave the basement. The thing with the Brainbots this afternoon? He did it. He got out of his cell to get something from the kitchen, and began poking stuff around. Just like that! Like he owned the place! Can you believe it?”

“You mean he’s alway been free to go?”

“To be honest, Minion forgot to lock up his door this morning, although Bernard said it wasn’t the first time.”

“And he’d rather stay there?”

“Believe me, Minion would love it for him to go away. He’s spent the entire year trying to bake a pie Bernard won’t criticize, but he can never make it right. He’s the worst prisoner ever and badmouths eve-ry-thing. Yet, he won’t leave. He says that he could stay forever in a place where practically no one bothers him.”

“That’s… _weird._ ”

“He _is_ weird!”

“All right. We’ll deal with him later. Next idea: what did you do with the security guards for the parade?”

“I sent them to the wrong location. They’re waiting in the middle of the desert for their cue.”

“Fine. Pick them up. That’s your first good task for your new life.”

“You got it!” Megamind began to grin but then he hesitated again. “Say, can you take me there? I’m not sure they would believe me otherwise.”

She picked him up, just like she had done it back on the platform. “That sounds like a good idea.”

He squealed again and held onto her. “Here we go!” he exclaimed. “Nothing will stop us in our path towards good!”

She grinned at him and took off. He was right. They had stopped pretending to be someone else and there were no more need for secret identities. They had realized they were and deserved better. Beware the one who stood on their way.


End file.
